(Barbados Nation) Digicel Barbados has appealed to Government to approve its application for a fixed line service in order to level the telecommunications playing field.
The call came last night from Ralph “Bizzy” Williams, chairman of Williams Industries and a director of Digicel, as he spoke at the company’s launch of its 4G network at Hilton Barbados.
Speaking to a large audience that included several Cabinet members and Opposition Members of Parliament, Williams said the company was anxious to start offering Barbadians an alternative to the service offered by incumbent provider Cable & Wireless, which trades in the Caribbean as LIME.
Saying he and fellow investor Sir Kyffin Simpson were pleased with their decade-old Digicel investment, Williams said: “Digicel needs the licence to level the playing field in Barbados between the competition and ourselves.
“[Digicel is] capable of installing fixed lines throughout Barbados and I guarantee you that if they are granted this . . . that people will not have to wait and beg to have a phone when they build a new house. Phones will be there within hours.”
Meanwhile, Barry O’Brien, chief executive officer of Digicel Barbados, revealed that the company had invested Bds$20 million in the 4G network here and the next logical step was a fixed line service.
According to him, there was 110 per cent cellphone penetration on the island and so the Jamaica-based company was looking to “take some of the market” in other services from its main competitor LIME.